The Silver Fang
by ImNotThatMatt
Summary: Lily has lived comfortably in the Upper Rings of Thronum Mare for all her life, but then her day is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of a stranger.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sister Claire is owned by Yamino and Ash, as is the setting and premise of the city featured here. However, most of the characters shown in this fanfiction are my own creation, all but two. One of which is an oc made by another fan, who basically cowrote this whole thing with me and stayed up till ungodly hours of the morning brainstorming. The other is a cameo from a very beloved character from the Sister Claire canon.

Chapter 1

Out of the Blue

* * *

Lily opened her eyes.

Her room slowly came into focus as her dream faded. Sawyer's warm body was curled up against her legs in the same spot as last night. The same bird chirped outside her window. Everything was the same. Everything was familiar.

She was home.

She sighed gently, settling herself back into reality, and then slid out of her four-poster.

The sun was just rising and judging by the sounds filtering in through the window, so was the city. She washed and dressed herself in her best clothes. As she checked herself in the large mirror of her bedroom, Sawyer finally woke and stretched on the bed, yawning in a very contagious way. Lily copied him and scratched under his chin where he liked it before making her way downstairs.

Her father was sitting at the table as usual, dressed for another meeting. He had his glasses on and was reading the paper with a scowl. They were still printing news on the attacks in the Upper Rings, even though there was nothing new about them to print anymore.

He looked up from his paper and smiled, but put his finger to his lips, pointing over into the sitting room where her mother was slumped in a chair. She was still in her uniform and completely passed out. Her auburn hair was escaping from her usually tight bun, and her mouth was slightly open.

"Long night," her father whispered. "Grab some pancakes, they're still warm."

Lily sat down at the table and started on the pancakes. When she had finished, their maid came to the table to clear everything away. She retreated upstairs and brushed her teeth, combed her long hair, then got her bag together. She waved to her father as she went out the door.

"Good luck," said her father.

It took Lily a second to remember what she was being wished luck for. Her mind had been on her dream all morning, but now it came back to her.

She had completely forgotten.

She closed her eyes in frustration. She purposefully walked out of the door and waited a few seconds before walking back inside. Her father looked up at her and made as if to say something, but she walked past, muttering that she had forgotten to brush her teeth.

When she got back upstairs, she made a silent gesture to release some steam. Sawyer looked up at her shrewdly and meowed.

Lily breathed through her nose and went about her room, looking for her book. When she didn't find it immediately, she went into her bathroom and turned on the tap to mask her search. She continued, but after two minutes with no success, she began to panic.

Of all the things to lose track of, and on all the days to forget it…

Sawyer got out of bed to help. In this case, help meant climbing onto her back as she crouched under the bed. She let him, she was too busy to care anyway. But when her father's footsteps sounded from the stairs, she straightened up quickly. Sawyer fell from her, his claws scratching painfully down her back and making her wince.

She dashed into the bathroom and pretended to be brushing her teeth as her father walked in.

"Elizabeth?"

"M'in here," Lily mumbled. Her father poked his head in. Lily kept her eyes on the ornate mirror, trying to will her face to look calm and unconcerned, like all the work she had been slaving over for the past year hadn't just disappeared.

Her father sighed. "Looking for this?"

Lily whipped around to look at him. He was holding up a leather-bound book.

Relief flooded her, but a weak smile was all she could manage. The shame she felt at forgetting something as important as her book hadn't left her. Her father was looking at her, not reproachfully, but with that face parents always seemed to adopt when trying to be patient.

She returned to finish brushing her already clean teeth. Her father didn't say anything.

"I know," said Lily once she had finished. "I already know, so you don't have to tell me."

"You don't know what I was going to say."

"You always say it." She knew most of her anger was only for herself, but it felt good to get it out.

"Well… yes but it bears repeating." Her father handed her the book, but before Lily could slip by with it, he placed a hand on her shoulder. She averted her eyes. "Look, you've got talent, and I'm not saying that as your father. I'm saying that as an old geezer who's made his living reading and writing. I've read it," he pointed at the book, "and it's good."

Lily glanced up at him momentarily before going back to stare at Sawyer in the other room. He was climbing up on her dresser, coming close to knocking some of the things off, just like last week when he broke her old—

"—sell yourself short like this," her father was saying. With an effort, Lily pulled herself back to the conversation, kicking herself again for not listening. "You're smart, and it shows. You just have to work at remembering. Write—"

"Notes, mark the calendar, I know." She tried not to sound rude, really she did. It would always cost her in the end. But her father had always been more lenient with her than her mother, so she was safe.

Her father straightened and let go of her. He nodded. "Alright."

"I'm sorry," Lily started.

"No, it's fine. I won't mention it to her."

Lily nodded and left the room without another word. She was at the top of the staircase when she heard her father speak again.

"Elizabeth?" Lily turned back. Her father was peering knowingly at her over his glasses. "Have you gotten anything for her yet?" he said in a low voice.

It took Lily a second to remember that too. "Oh, for… no, I was… um, planning on getting something at the market today. On my way there."

Her father nodded, looking like he knew Lily had forgotten again. "Alright. Do you have enough money?"

"Yes," Lily said, this time confidently. "I took out fifty roses from my account. I put it together last night, so I wouldn't forget."

Her father smiled again. "Good. Get along now. When you get back we can go to your favorite restaurant to celebrate."

—

No one really talked to Lily that morning apart from her father. The crowd around her didn't concern themselves with the girl, even the ones who knew her and her parents. The most she got was a few polite nods and a passing smile. She preferred it though; it wasn't everyday she got to walk through the city on her own. It left her free to think endlessly about anything and everything that came into her mind.

She looked up at the marvelously clear blue sky. The spires of the pink and white castle pierced it like arrows and the long flags twisted lazily in the wind. The familiar smell of spring was finally, finally back, and with it a warmth that sent waves of pleasure through Lily as she breathed in the air.

The Blue had always been the most beautiful Ring of the city, and its name could be found everywhere. She never tired of admiring the expertly crafted houses on either side of her, with their painted walls and carved door frames and signs. Each building was a different shade of blue. From every window spilled forget-me-nots, hydrangeas, hyacinths, morning glories, and flowers even Lily still didn't know the names of. The people too; all the sweeping cloaks of embroidered velvet and satin, the hats that rivaled the flowerbeds in their natural flamboyance, the sharp, pristinely kept uniforms of the guards. Even the clean cobblestone street had vague navy hue if you looked at it long enough.

She passed through the marketplace, where finely woven silks from Salvation hung in swathes from the stands of several vendors. The window of one store glittered with gold statues and charms all the way from the Fire Islands. The same cello duo as yesterday was playing outside one of the restaurants, already attracting a crowd. Everywhere she looked she saw signs of last minute preparations for Fête des Mères. There were more flowers and food vendors than normal, and several shops had cards and gift baskets in their windows for mothers.

But Lily decided to stop at a jeweler to buy her present. The bell tinkled as she entered. She looked over the shelves and display boxes full of ornate earrings and rings, inlaid with all manner of stones and crystals. Sapphires large as eggs all the way from Alpinum glimmered in a small basket. Everything was so beautiful, but in the end she settled on a ruby necklace. Despite living in the Blue her whole life, red had always been her mother's favorite color.

Lily paid the smiling woman at the desk thirty gold roses and left the store, slipping her mother's gift into her bag as she returned to the marketplace.

She strained herself not to get sidetracked. As much as she longed to stop at every vendor to see what new wares they had, or stop by the restaurant to hear her favorite cellists, or even talk to one of the vendors and listen to their stories, today was special. Today was important. She had been planning this for so long, and whatever happened today would likely affect her future in the city considerably.

She checked her bag every few minutes, just to make sure her book was still in there. She sometimes did this sort of thing, but her mounting excitement made her doubly paranoid that she had somehow forgotten it again. Better safe than sorry. She also tried to remember if there was anything else she had forgotten. She always had that feeling, but today she was certain. She had everything she needed in her bag. She was sure she had no other errands to do for the rest of the day.

As she made her way out of the bustling marketplace and up the street to the publisher's office, she began to worry, as anyone would in her situation.

What if they didn't like it? What if they simply didn't care enough to read it at all? She had poured so many months and so much care into it. She had read it over so many times she could recite the whole thing by heart now, which was no small feat. The book wasn't short by any means. If they didn't like it, if they didn't take her up, she didn't know what she was going—

Somebody shoved bodily into her and she was pushed aside. She was too slow to react in her preoccupied state and she ended up tripping over her own feet. There was a sudden slash of silver.

She fell on her backside on the hard sidewalk, dazed and shocked. Pulling her hair out of the way, she saw someone racing away down an alleyway, a familiar bag clutched in their arm. She looked down and saw that she was holding the strap. It had been cut.

In that instant, time seemed to slow. She had just been robbed. Someone had actually mugged her. She had never even seen someone get into an actual fight before. The simple truth of what had happened sank in painfully slowly, and as it did, her face drained of all color.

Her book.

She scrambled to her feet and stumbled down the alley. She began to run, her shoes tacking hard against the wet stone. Her heart raced. Her breath came out in gasps as she pumped her arms and charged after the thief.

The strangest feeling flooded her body, sending chills up her spine and spreading to her fingertips. Something she couldn't remember ever feeling in her life. She was afraid. For the first time in her life, she was in danger. For the first time in what felt like years she was running again, and she was running after someone who had a knife and not a care for her well-being. For the very first time, she was doing something that no one had told her to do.

Adrenaline shot through her body, the narrow alley flashed past her as she ran, and an old, musky scent filled her nostrils. It was almost midday, but even so the alley was dark and difficult to maneuver. The thief seemed to know its ins and outs just as much as her. Lily followed the sounds of crashes and curses. She was catching up, her long legs serving her well.

She spotted the thief just as they rounded a corner, and shouted after them, but they whipped out of sight.

She ran around the corner and a heavy metal pipe came out of nowhere, flying towards her face. Her body twisted and before she even knew what had happened, she had ducked under it, and was off again. Her breath was coming out in gasps and a stitch in her side was burning.

She could see the thief properly now, running ahead of her. It was a girl. She had short, roughly cut golden hair and was dressed in dirty brown clothes. In one hand she held a short silver knife and clutched in the other, the bag. She glanced back at Lily. She grinned.

And slipped.

The thief fell spectacularly, knocking over a metal bin with a crash that echoed deafeningly around the narrow walls. The knife flew from her hands as she landed, but she held tight to the bag. Lily ran towards her, but the thief kicked the bin. It flew back and hit Lily in the shins, causing her to stumble.

The thief scrambled to her feet and ran off again. Lily reached the spot and ducked down, snatching the knife up off the wet ground as she went. She had a feeling she was going to need it. The thought made her stomach curdle.

She skidded around another corner and was met with a dead end and a ladder. The thief was already ten feet up and climbing fast.

Without hesitation, she ran to the wall and began to climb too. The thief was only a few rungs up from her, and she tried to grab at her feet, but the thief kicked back. Her foot connected with Lily's face. Stars burst in her eyes and she felt something break. She slipped down a few rungs and hugged the ladder desperately for a moment as blood spurted from her nose. She spat it away and kept climbing.

The pain was blinding. That was another new thing: pain. Real, actual, _painful_ pain. The worst injury she had ever endured was a bite from Sawyer. Now it felt like someone was pressing a white hot poker to her face.

She made it to the top of the ladder and spotted the thief making her way across the ridge of the roof, her arms outstretched to her side. She wasn't far. Lily covered her nose with her free hand and pulled herself ungainly up onto the beam too.

She straightened up and balanced precariously on the thin ridge. Without thinking, she made the mistake of looking over the edge. She almost stumbled. They were so high up. She wasn't afraid of heights, thank the gods, but… all the same…

She took a deep breath. Focused on the thief. She was shorter than Lily, but moving nimbly along the ridge like she did this every day.

"Gib id back!" Lily called out to her. Her voice was muffled and almost comical.

The thief stopped and looked back at her. She looked momentarily surprised, like she hadn't expected Lily to have taken it this far, but then she grinned. For a moment, Lily thought she would slip again, but she didn't. On the contrary, she stood up straight, stuffing the bag into her shirt.

"If you can keep up, it's yours!"

She turned and began to run along the beam. When she got to the edge, she kicked off the roof and leaped into the air, plummeting out of sight. Lily shouted in surprise and rushed to the edge too. She was scared to look.

But the thief had landed safely on the Barrier Wall that separated the Blue from the Green. The wider, lusher Ring stretched in a curve on either side of her. The rest of the city was laid out below it and the sea beyond sparkled in the bright sunshine.

The thief had gotten shakily to her feet. She looked mostly unhurt, making her way across the deserted battlements without looking back.

Lily swore under her breath. She walked back several paces and crouched, breathing in quickly. She took the short silver knife and slipped it into her belt.

"Hoooo boy. Come on, don't think, don't think, don't think, just—"

She began to run. She had read about this, even written about this sort of thing in her book. It was easy, not a problem. If the thief could do it, then she certainly could too. All she had to do was trust her body. Just run, run, run and—!

She was in the air, flying in an arc towards the wall. In that instant, she glanced down and saw the cold, hard, unforgiving street below her. In that instant, she regretted everything that had brought her to this exact spot.

And then the wall came up to meet her.

She let out a yell. Her feet made contact first. She tried to roll, just like in the stories, but instead she smacked hard against the stone. She ended up rolling, but completely out of control. Her body slammed into the battlements on the other side.

The world was spinning. Her side was screaming in pain. Her face was still hot with blood. She was completely winded and for a few frightening seconds, she had the horrible feeling that she wouldn't be able to take in air again.

She could hear someone shouting, and she looked up through the messy curtain of her hair and saw the thief. She had stopped and was looking back at Lily. She was whooping, cheering her on, waving as if to encourage her.

Lily spat the blood out of her mouth and struggled to her feet. She started to stumble, her stiff limbs protesting by sending shocks of pain throughout her body. She wanted nothing more than to stop moving and cut off all feeling, but the sight of the thief lazily walking backwards along the wall acted like a stimulant upon her.

"You doing alright?" the thief called out, sounding almost friendly. Concerned.

"Neveh beddah…" Lily half spat, half wheezed. There was a vacant space in her mouth where a tooth had been only just recently.

"You look like shit…"

Lily laughed despite herself. It hurt. Moving hurt. Moving was _agony_. Her side was burning, drenched in something wet and warm. She must have landed in a puddle…

She was feeling dizzy.

Everything was blurry. The world seemed to fade away, or perhaps she was fading away. She didn't seem to feel it when she fell to her knees. Someone was shouting something, the thief perhaps. She couldn't tell.

She couldn't think.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Healer

* * *

Lily opened her eyes.

Her room slowly came into focus as her dream faded. Sawyer's warm body was curled against her legs in the same spot as last night.

She groaned, trying to remember her dream. It had been an exciting one. So realistic and heart-pounding…

She froze. Her bed was harder than normal. Different somehow, in fact, it wasn't her bed. Her room was different. The air was different. It wasn't the same. It wasn't familiar.

She wasn't home.

She blinked. She was in a hall she didn't recognize, with beds along the walls and linen curtains on stands lined around them. Rainbow sunlight streamed in from tall, stained glass windows and a small fire filled the room with a smoky warmth.

She sat bolt upright. A thunderclap of pain rocked suddenly through her body and she let out a strained wheeze, her eyes wide. It was so painful that her stomach turned over and she retched.

"Now, now," said a calm voice. "Lie back down, that's it…"

She turned and saw that it wasn't Sawyer sitting by her legs. It was a woman. She was wearing a healer's uniform, and an apron that must have been white at some point, but was now splattered with her Order's color. Her blonde hair was teased up in a knot and she regarded Lily over her tiny spectacles just as shrewdly as Sawyer sometimes did.

"Where—"

"I said, _lie down._ " She put a hand on Lily's shoulder and pushed her back. It hurt even more. She tried to fight the healer off, but her arms felt like lead. Her head was swimming.

"Where am I? What— ah!—"

"Shhh. You're safe now," said the healer plaintively. "You're not supposed to be awake just yet, I'm not done."

Lily opened her mouth to say something else, but the healer plopped something sweet into it. Very sweet. She sucked on it, trying to figure out what it was, but almost immediately she started feeling dizzy, weak, heavy.

The world slowly faded again, and so did she.

—

Her body felt numb and warm. Her face and side especially. Before she could regain control of her body, she began to slowly remember what had happened. The thief, the chase, the jump.

Her book.

Lily opened her eyes.

She was still in the same room. The healer was still there too, dabbing at something on Lily's side. When she realized Lily was awake, she leaned back from her work.

"Welcome back," she said. "You should be right as rain. Sit up slowly, now. Slowly! That's it…"

There was a stale taste in Lily's mouth. She suddenly realized just how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. What time was it?

She put a hand on her side. Except for the fact that it was covered in a hard, pungent smelling cream, it felt normal. The burning pain had subsided into a mild itch. She touched her face. Her nose. Everything was the same. She moved her tongue around.

Her tooth was back.

"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"

"I don't—" she swallowed, her throat was dry. She was still marveling at her body. Had she even gotten those injuries? Had she imagined it all? No, it must have been real, or why else would she have woken up in a hospital? "I think so…"

"Good. You bloody idiot."

Lily turned to stare at her, diverted. "What?"

"You heard me," said the healer sternly, crossing her arms. "What in the name of all the gods name were you thinking, jumping off a building like that?"

"I… was chasing someone. A—a thief—"

"And why, pray tell, did you not inform any of the guard of this? Men and women who are trained to corner and tackle vagrants on a daily basis? She had a knife for heaven's sake. Do you have a death wish?"

"No, I don't! I just didn't— There wasn't enough time, and I didn't—" But she stopped short, her brow furrowed. "Wait, how did you know that?"

"Know what?" the healer snapped.

"That it was a girl? And… that she had a knife?"

"Because I happened to find it buried in your damn hip, child."

The healer leaned over to the bedside table and picked up the still bloody knife. Lily hadn't had the chance to get a good look at it during the chase, but now that she did, she saw that it was beautifully made. It looked extremely ornate and expensive, something the thief must have gotten from the Blue or even the Indigo.

The healer placed it back on the table. "And that's another thing," she continued. "Why would you ever think it was a good idea to put it on the _inside_ of your belt right before you jumped? It was buried so deep she couldn't even—"

"You saw her?!" Lily interrupted, suddenly excited. "The thief? Were you there? She was wearing something like a tunic or something, and she had short golden hair, like yours! She stole my bag, she's the reason I was running after her, and she jumped onto the wall, the Barrier Wall, and I tried to follow her, but I—"

"You almost got yourself _killed!_ In fact, no, I take that back, you _did_ get yourself killed. If I wasn't in today, she would have left you to—"

"Then you did see her! Where did she go? Do you know who she is?"

The healer laughed unexpectedly. She smiled for the first time, although it remained cold. "Do I know her. Gods, do I."

"Then… then will you help me? Wait… can you take me to her?" Lily said, her heart racing again. "I need to find her!"

The woman went back to her scowl. "I will take you nowhere. Least of all to her, and least of all when you're still recovering from—"

"But she has my bag, I need it back!"

"Whatever trinkets you had in—"

"No you don't understand, it had my book in it!"

"Well then, I'm sure you can buy another one at the—"

"No, it—"

"WILL YOU STOP INTERRUPTING—"

"Venus!" hissed a voice.

"WHAT?!"

Lily whipped around to look at the door and received a shock. Another healer stood in the entrance, and she looked exactly like the healer she had just been talking to. They were completely identical, from their hair down to the buttons on their uniforms.

"Please keep your voice down, she's not the only patient we have." The new healer smiled kindly at Lily and bowed. "Please excuse my sister, young lady. Her manners do not reflect the majority of our establishment. If you wish, I can have her replaced—"

The healer named Venus stood up suddenly and walked around Lily's bed over to the door. "She was left in my care," she spoke in barely an undertone, but Lily could just hear her. "Not yours."

"I beg your pardon? You will not talk to me like that. All things considered, she should be in _my_ care."

"Your care? Because of _her?_ And what would you have done exactly? Complained about her to her dead body?"

"Uhm, who—" Lily started, but the two healers seemed not to hear her.

"Venus, I will not allow your—"

"I saved her life."

"Oh, did you? Well it sounded to me as if you were shouting at her."

"I was," Venus said slowly through gritted teeth.

"And why were you shouting at her?" The healer crossed her hands over her lap and cocked her head to the side. "Do you care this little about your vows? I'll remind you the code clearly states that verbal abuse will not be tolerated—"

"She was asking to be taken to her."

The healer's eyes widened. "To… to _her?"_ She looked over at Lily and smiled a sweet, rather condescending smile. "Oh young lady," she said slowly. "You don't want to see her, do you? The one who attacked you? She is a thief and a very, very dirty sinner."

"No, I… need to find her, I need to get my—" Lily started.

"No, no, no," said the healer, still smiling. "You needn't worry yourself about her kind."

"Her kind? What does that mean?"

"Oh nothing," she trilled happily. She was speaking as if she was addressing a five-year-old. "All you need to know is that she is a wicked little girl, and the last thing you need is to be tainted by her presence any longer than you already have. Or anyone _else_ like her for that matter. What you need is rest. I'll take it from—"

The door slammed in her face. Venus huffed as a muffled yelling came from the other side of the wood. The other healer was shouting and banging on the door, but it was all incomprehensible. Venus took out a key and turned the lock in the handle.

Lily stared.

Venus stood up straight and glared at the door as if she was trying to shoot lasers out of her eyes. Then she turned and glared down at Lily too, who leaned away somewhat warily.

"Ever been to the Lower Rings, child?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Golden Fang

* * *

Some time later, Lily emerged from a trap door into blinding sunlight to find herself standing somewhere in the middle of the Orange.

Venus had taken her through a similar trap door in the infirmary and led them through a winding maze of what was obviously a network of escape tunnels under the city. Lily hadn't talked at all during their time underground except to ask why they were taking this particular route.

"Quicker," Venus had said shortly, and that was that.

She had stayed behind the woman, staring at her with newfound respect as she led the way with a lamp. Venus had kept up a constant stream of muttered abuse toward her sister all the way from the Blue to the Orange, and Lily was quite impressed. She wished she had a way to write down some of the insults, because she had never heard some of them before in her life. And they were good.

But as they exited the alley in which the trap door lay and Venus discarded her lamp, her creative and likely foreign slurs were driven out of Lily's mind.

She had been through the Orange multiple times in her life, but that had only been on the main road that led down to the beaches. As it turned out, she had never properly been on a street in the Lower Rings.

She stared around, drinking in the scene.

This was the home of the proud blacksmiths and builders of Thronum Mare. The hardy men and women who supplied the city with everything from nails to massive ships, lightbulbs to walls. As she followed Venus through the crowd of people, Lily took a deep breath. The Ring smelled of smoke, iron and wood shavings. But mostly sweat. Sweat worse than old socks. Sweat like a village of people who had little to no sense of personal hygiene and were proud of it.

Lily breathed it in and almost gagged.

She loved it.

She wished she had about eight more eyes. There were shops everywhere, stretching down the curved street for as far as the eye could see. Stores that sold new crab cages, electric appliances, ancient relics, tools, utensils, wheels, cannons, furniture, and some objects that she had never even seen before, but captured her interest immediately. Everywhere she looked she saw shops. Small, family owned shops, shops that seemed almost too big to fit on one street, shops on top of shops, and all of them bursting with merchandise of every shape and size. Lily stopped to look at one that sold real, actual swords. Blades that ranged from practice to practical to pretty.

"Come away from there, child!" Venus called to her. She wrenched her eyes away from a beautifully crafted sword that looked like it could have belonged to Lady Oscar and went back to the woman.

"I have a name, you know."

"I'm sure you do, child."

"And I'm not a child, I'm an adult now."

"I'm sure you are, child."

Lily decided on the spot that she liked the woman. "Where are we going?"

"Where you asked to be taken."

"But how—"

"You're welcome."

"Y-yes, thank you. But… how do you know where to find her?"

Venus didn't answer. Lily continued.

"That woman, your sister, she sounded like she's known the thief for a long time. And you said you knew her as well? How?"

Venus grinned at her. "You're not very quick witted, are you?"

"Yes, I am actually," Lily said in a hard voice. "I graduated last year from—"

"I said quick witted, not book smart. There's a difference. You can memorize all the books in the world, but that only shows you never took the time to learn what was in them for yourself."

Lily, being the self-proclaimed quick witted adult that she was, couldn't think of a response to that. She pondered her words for a moment, then said, "You've avoided my questions about the girl, the thief, all afternoon. And your sister didn't want to talk about her either. Why is that?"

"Hmm. It was fun watching you squirm, but I'll save you the suspense. She's my niece."

Lily glanced at her, at her golden hair, her face. She let out a huff. She could kick herself. She played with her hair like she always did whenever she missed something obvious. "That explains a lot."

"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Only… only that she would drop me off at your hospital, and your sister's… reaction—"

"Relax, child. I'm only teasing."

"Oh."

They walked on in silence for a while. Venus took her down several streets, weaving through the districts. It wasn't just stores that filled the Orange; there were apartments and restaurants, hospitals and warehouses. But it was all shabbier and older looking than anything she had seen in the Blue. Everything here was so rustic and warm, wooden and… real.

Venus allowed her to stop by a small restaurant for a quick bite to eat. Her stomach had been growling for the last hour. But it was only when the unfamiliar, weird looking food came and the owner asked for money that, for the first time in her life actually, Lily realized she had none. She had almost forgotten all her spare gold had been in her bag. Venus had to step in and pay for it before the owner became too angry. To her pleasant surprise, Lily found that the food was rather good, and she ate it quickly before they took to the crowd again.

As the streets became thinner and more tightly packed, Lily remembered something else, something a little more pressing than food.

"You're wrong, by the way," she started.

"Oh? About what?"

"About books. You don't necessarily have to experience something on your own to understand it or make connections. You can learn a lot by reading."

Venus didn't say anything. She was waiting for Lily to continue, so she did.

"I know all of this is new to me, but I'm not slow. I can put two and two together."

"Hmm. Your hospital bill says otherwise…"

"Like for example," she said, weighing her words carefully and acting like she hadn't heard the last comment. She looked at Venus for her reaction. "You're a Witch."

Venus glanced at her from the side. She wore a calculating look, like she was sizing her up, but Lily saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

"Very good," she said. "I did make it rather obvious though, didn't I?"

"Well…" Lily gestured to herself. She was wearing a new set of clothes, a simple pair of pants and a rather dusty old tunic that her mother wouldn't have allowed in the house. But they served a purpose: no one in the crowd was paying her the slightest bit of attention. Venus had also supplied her with a hairband, and she had put her long hair up in a ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way. Venus had also given her the ornate knife that she had stabbed herself with. She had it in a small, poorly made leather sheath on her belt. She wondered, as she had during the chase, if she'd need it when she met the thief.

Her old clothes were ruined, torn and bloody, like she herself had been. But now she felt completely normal. Her face felt exactly as it had before she met the thief. The cream on her hip had caked and fallen off as they had walked through the tunnels under the city, and now it only itched as she walked through the thronging crowd.

"Yes, well." Venus sniffed haughtily and faced forward again. "You _were_ dying."

"If you're worried I'm going to tell someone, I won't." That earned her another, rather unconcerned smile from Venus. "I'm in your debt now, I suppose."

"Then repay me by not jumping off another building, for heaven's sake. Or doing any other spectacular feats of utter stupidity."

"I'll think about it," said Lily, smiling. She paused. "I assume your sister doesn't know. All that talk about sinners and 'their kind'."

"Oh she knows. She's not as bad as she seems." Lily raised her eyebrows dubiously at her, and Venus elaborated. "She's rotten piece of work, but she lets me practice my magick in the Blue without anyone being any the wiser. Come to think of it, it's the only thing she's good at keeping her mouth shut about."

"But… you slammed the door in her face? How's she going to react—"

"She'll filibuster for a few days, probably longer. I'm her sister, and she's still—"

But Lily wasn't listening anymore, in fact she had come to an abrupt halt. She was staring down a side street that they were passing. It was deserted but for one person, who was walking with their back to her at a brisk pace, like they were late for something.

And that person had short golden hair, and a torn bag under their arm.

Lily's split second of shock earned her a shove from passerby. She straightened up and looked around. In those few seconds, Venus had disappeared into the sea of people.

"Venus!" There was no response. She cupped her hands over her mouth, "VENUS!"

Someone very intelligent in the crowd called back, "PENIS!" and a few people laughed around her.

Panic-stricken, Lily looked from the point Venus had been moments ago to the side street and back. The thief was getting away…

She craned her neck over the crowd. Her height helped some, but none of the faces she could see were familiar. She looked back to the side street.

The thief was rounding a corner.

Lily clenched her fists.

"Dammit." She pushed through the crowd and ran down the empty side street as quietly as she could.

She slowed to a walk when she reached the end and poked her head around the corner. She waited until she saw the thief round the next turn to go after her, trying to make as little noise as possible. She followed her like this for a while, sneaking forward whenever the thief disappeared around a bend. The sounds of the crowd faded to a distant, rolling whisper as she wound her way after her.

After about ten minutes however, Lily began to have second thoughts. She didn't know if she could remember the way back to the main street now. They had travelled so far, and the buildings she was passing looked so alike…

Finally, Lily peeked around one last turn and saw the thief standing in front of the entrance to an enormous warehouse. It looked old and derelict, with smashed windows and weeds creeping halfway up the high walls.

The thief knocked on the metal door. The sound echoed slightly in the quiet, deserted street.

They waited together, Lily watching her. The thief rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, looking up at the front of the warehouse like she was bored. After a minute of silence, in which nothing more interesting occurred than a rat running from one side of the street to the other, the door finally opened.

Lily pulled back as far as she could while keeping them within view. It was dark, but Lily could just see the outline of a man in the threshold. He said something to the thief that Lily couldn't hear, shooing her away with his hand. The thief responded, holding up the bag. After a moment, the man seemed to change his mind. He stepped back, opening the door wider. The thief took a deep breath, seeming to collect herself, and disappeared into the building. The door creaked as it closed behind her.

Lily steeled herself, taking a deep breath. What she was about to do was dangerous, foolhardy to the extreme, if what she gathered from the situation was true. The thief was going to sell her bag on the black market. Lily clenched her fists. She hadn't come this far to leave now.

She was going to get it back, and that was that.

Lily retraced her steps and went down a different alley, one that would take her to the side of the warehouse. She wasn't sure if the windows she was passing were part of the building, or if anyone was on the other side of them, so she kept low and quiet. Bottles and trash littered the ground, and it was all she could do to avoid accidentally kicking something as she crept by.

When she was about halfway down, and most certainly next to the warehouse by now, she heard someone talking. She was approaching a small, open window, and voices were filtering out of it into the alley. She got under the window as quietly as she could, but didn't look in just yet. For all she knew there might be someone inside who was looking through the window right now, and if she raised her head...

The voices inside were suddenly interrupted by a new one. Footsteps.

"Boss," said the new, gruffer voice. "There's someone here. I told her to leave, but… she insisted. Said she's got something you want. Mentioned the Upper Rings."

Lily decided to risk a peek. Now was the perfect time if ever. Everyone in the room would be distracted. Praying she was right, she sat up until she could see over the frame of the window.

The inside of the warehouse was semi-dark and full of crates and boxes, shipping supplies and stacks of wood. There were about a dozen men and women standing around the room. Two were sitting at a table in the middle of the room and looking like they had just been having a relaxing chat just a few moments ago. One of them had his boots propped up on the table and the other was smoking a long pipe.

The man who had opened the door outside was standing a little ways away from the table, the thief at his side.

Despite herself, and despite everything she had done to her that morning, Lily began to worry for the thief. What on earth was she thinking? When she opened the bag, the only thing she would find would be a book, a small purse of money, and a necklace. The best case scenario was she would get laughed out, and Lily didn't want to think about the worst case.

The man who was smoking the pipe took a long pull on it, looking annoyed at the interruption, but the man who had his boots on the table removed them, leaning forward in his seat. He was tall and powerfully built, with a sharp, cunning face and dark sideburns. He alone out of anybody in the room looked interested in what the thief had to offer.

The man, whom Lily took to be the leader, nodded. He beckoned to the thief, a smile on his face, and she approached the table confidently. The man who had led her in backed off out of sight.

The leader spoke in a voice that was surprisingly smooth given his bulk. It was level, but firm. Even Lily, who had never seen, let alone heard a mob leader up close before, could sense that here was a man who could command a battalion, and a conversation, with ease.

"Welcome," he said, and his smile echoed his words. His face fell into something like sympathy as he studied at the thief. "You look exhausted. Rough day?"

"It would seem so," said the thief.

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Here, Quigglesworth, lend the poor girl your chair."

The tension in the room broke. Everyone stifled snorts of laughter or worked their jaws furiously in an attempt to keep their faces straight. Even Lily couldn't help but grin slightly at the name. The man next to the leader got to his feet. He had the most un-funny face Lily had ever seen in her life. It was red and wrinkled with age. He looked like a grouchy old vulture.

The man didn't say a word to anyone as he picked up his chair and moved it around the table so that it was sitting opposite the leader. He set it down with rather more force than was necessary, and the echoing thunk silenced the surrounding onlookers. The man moved off to stand along the wall.

The thief took the offered seat and the leader smiled at her again. "Comfortable?"

"Yes, thank you."

His shoulders bounced once in a short chuckle. "Well, I'm eager to hear how your very exhausting day went. For you to come here of all places, and to interrupt my afternoon, I'm sure you must have done something rather exciting and…"—he licked his lips—"…profitable."

He didn't have to say ' _or else'_. The statement seem to whisper on the air like an echo.

"You seem rather perceptive," said the thief, crossing her arms and not missing a beat. "Not exactly what I was expecting from the leader of a failing rebellion."

The leader smiled and looked down at the table. He spread his arms wide and gestured to the room at large. "Normally I'd argue on that last point, but it seems you are… also surprisingly perceptive. Ah!" He lowered his hands into an apologetic gesture. "Where are my manners. Here you are begging an audience with me and I've taken all this time and not introduced myself properly. Forgive me. My name is Fenrich. You may know me by the name the papers have deemed interesting enough for the public: the Golden Fang of Thronum Mare. Rather grandiose, but, accurate." He smiled again, wide this time, and something long and yellow glinted under his lip. "And, as you have obviously deduced, we are— well we are what is _left of_ — the resistance. And who might you be?"

"Artemis," said the thief shortly.

Fenrich's smile widened. He made a slight bow, his eyes never leaving her face. "Well met, Artemis. And to what do I owe the… pleasure?"

Artemis sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. She took a deep breath.

"I know you've got it in for the King and Queen, and I know that was you last month, with the explosion in the Indigo. You killed two families who had no connection to the monarchy at all, did you know? And the week before that, you led the raid on the gates and only ended up killing half your men, and hardly any of the guard. But you did manage to burn down a library on your way out, which must have been integral to your attack, I'm sure. I've been following you around for a while now, and I'm sorry to say I'm a little disappointed. I honestly don't see how you expect to get anything done with such a childishly loud—"

"Careful, girl."

His voice hadn't changed at all, but Lily felt the temperature of the room drop perceptibly. Nobody in the warehouse moved but Artemis, who cocked her head to the side slightly and went on as though she hadn't been interrupted.

"From what I've gathered, there's a reason your little rebellion has been failing. It isn't because of Lady Oscar's interference, it isn't because of your henchmen screwing it up. And it isn't even because you're dead wrong to rebel against the monarchs and kill innocent people, which you are by the way. No, it's failing because of you and your insufferable incompetence."

Lily's heart was banging out of her chest where she was sitting. She was staring at the girl, dumbfounded. Fenrich was staring at her too, but it was with an expression Lily couldn't read. A mask, stuck with its friendly face, but no longer in use.

"You've been the one screwing up your own rebellion. Screwing up the lives of your loyal supporters. Because you like the name you've been given by the papers. It makes you feel important, even though you're not. It makes you sound frightening, even though you're not. It's starting to take on a different meaning now."

Fenrich still hadn't moved from his spot. He hadn't changed his expression. He didn't even blink; in fact, Lily realized for the first time that she had yet to see the man blink at all.

"Do you even care about the rebellion?" Artemis went on recklessly. "It's all a convenient pretense for you, isn't it? An excuse to flex your puny muscles, to kill people. And in the end, you still manage to somehow screw it up like an idiot and end up killing more of your own men. And why?"

The whole warehouse seemed to be holding its breath. Not a thing moved. Everyone was staring at Artemis. She seemed to drink in the moment, relish it. Then she stood up, her chair scraping the floor, and put her hands on the table. She leaned forward and enunciated clearly and loudly, as if she was addressing someone very deaf and slow.

"Because your big ugly head's too far stuck up your big ugly ass to realize it."

Silence. The loudest silence Lily had ever heard in her life. She couldn't breathe, and neither it seemed could anyone else but Artemis. She let out a silent breath, her shoulders sloping down. She had said her part.

Fenrich began to rise.

Slowly, very slowly, his chair scraped behind him too. But as he straightened up, he began to change. Something unusual was happening to him. Something unnatural, unnerving. His body was stretching slowly, his arms and face were becoming darker. His face was twisting hideously.

"I won't kill you today." His voice was deepening. Becoming less human. It sent chills up Lily's spine. Something primal deep inside her began to panic, scrabbling at her insides. It began to pull at her arm, screaming at her to run, begging her to flee. But she couldn't. She couldn't move. Her body wouldn't respond.

Fenrich continued to grow. Black hair was sprouting from every inch of skin that was exposed and his clothing stretched across his inflating chest. His ears sharpened to a point, and so did his nails, his teeth. He was at least nine feet tall now.

"You," he continued, slower now, "are a very, _very_ stupid girl. But you are still… very pretty." His voice became a growl. He leaned forward, across the table. His put his elongated face right up against the girl's who, inexplicably, stood her ground. "So I will keep you alive. For as long as it takes for me to grow bored of you. And then I will kill you."

Fenrich was now stuck somewhere between a man and a bear sized wolf. His yellow eyes burned in their sockets. A low rumble was coming from him and his body was tensed, pulled like a spring. His curling snout and the girl's face were mere inches from one another. Lily could see the beast's namesake clearly now, glinting golden, nestled between long, sharp teeth that were also yellow, but with grime.

Artemis grinned. Somehow. It made no sense, but she did it. She smiled at the enormous beast before her. The savage thing that was bearing down on her with murder in its glowing eyes. Worse than murder.

She raised a finger. "Before we get to that," she said calmly. "I did come here to show you something, remember? You've had so much trouble even getting into the Purple, so I thought I might come and show you how easy it is when you actually use your head."

Fenrich didn't move. He didn't say anything, so the girl, very slowly, very carefully, bent down to pick up Lily's bag. She pulled it up and onto the table delicately. Fenrich backed off slightly, curious. The rumbling had stopped, but his eyes still burned.

All eyes were on the bag now. The girl opened the flap on it with a click. She put her hand inside.

And then she pulled from its depths something that shined, bright and brilliant. She turned it in her hands, catching every ray of light in the room and sending them dancing in celebration around the walls, the surface of the table, herself and Fenrich. It was dazzling. It was beautiful.

It was a crown. The crown. The crown of the King of Thronum Mare. Polished and golden and resplendent at every angle, with blood red rubies inlaid in the metal, stark against the gold.

Shocked mutterings and whisperings filled the room. The rebels were staring nonplussed at it. The girl presented the crown to a thunderstruck Fenrich, who gazed, enthralled.

He reached out and grabbed it with his clawed hands.

And then several things happened in rapid succession. The crown rippled and twisted weirdly. It melted and the gold began to wrap itself around Fenrich's claws. It covered his hands and latched onto the table like a vice. The Wolfwitch howled in fury and surprise as the girl vaulted onto the table, the shining tendrils of gold connected to her hands like reins. She shot a hand into his gaping, frothing mouth and found the golden fang. It came out in an instant and she removed her arm away from his slashing teeth, raising her hand high above them. The fang glinted between her thumb and forefinger and for an instant, it seemed to sharpen to a point, drawing the gaze of the entire room before she brought it down, sinking it deep into Fenrich's eye.

There was a terrible, rattling, inhuman scream that made the walls shudder. Blood spurted from Fenrich's face. He writhed, but his arms were stuck to the table which shook wildly and shattered. The rubies that had been in the crown went flying like marbles. The girl held on for dear life, yelling her own battle cry too. She pulled at the golden reins and they snaked away from his arms, freeing him. The gold collected on her hand into a sharp spike that she pulled back and brought stabbing down towards his chest.

But the Wolfwitch was ready. He twisted out of the way and grabbed the blade. It started to melt again, but before it could wrap around his hands, he yanked violently. The golden sword went flying across the room, clamoring as it rolled across the floor.

Fenrich grabbed Artemis by the throat and lifted her, as easily as he would a kitten, raising her above his head. She gasped for breath, kicking with all her might, but it was no use. She was left with nothing but his fang to defend herself with, and she was stabbing at his hairy arms with it. Fenrich seemed not to notice.

"I've changed my mind about not killing you today!" he barked.

He turned and threw the girl.

Right at Lily.

Lily ducked out of sight as something slammed into the wall under the window with a grunt of pain. She sat staring wide-eyed at the ground. A strained, rasping cough fluttered out of the window, close. Lily closed her eyes, pulling at her hair.

The girl was going to die. The girl was going to be _killed_. If someone didn't interfere—

Her panicked breath hitched as the realization hit her.

 _Wait…_

Lily opened her eyes.

… _I'M someone!_

And before her nerve could fail, she did something incredibly, spectacularly, utterly stupid.

She stood up and climbed through the open window.

Every eye in the room turned to her in surprise. She was held in the spotlight of the gazes of a dozen of men and women, all of whom were more than capable and willing to kill her. Twenty feet away, and staring at her now with a single, glowing, yellow eye was Fenrich. The Wolfwitch was jet black and massive, large as a bear on its hind legs, larger now that she was facing him properly. He stared at Lily, looking temporarily too surprised at her sudden appearance to react.

Lily's throat wasn't working. Her courage was falling apart faster than she could build it back up. She turned from the monster before her and looked down at the girl. Artemis was staring up at her, just as shocked as everyone else.

"Hi," said Lily, and her voice cracked for the first time in years.

She bent down and grabbed the girl, pulled her to her feet, and shoved her clumsily out the window. Artemis knocked her head on the frame and cried out.

Fenrich seemed to regain control of his limbs again. He started towards Lily, a charging mass of fur and fang and fury. The sight and the sound of approaching death sent an electric shock through Lily's body, and she scrambled out the window too.

She landed next to the girl. Artemis was rubbing her head and getting to her feet. She opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment Fenrich slammed into the window. He was too large to fit, but a clawed hand swiped furiously through the air, grasping for them. Lily crawled backwards away from the window.

"We gotta go NOW!" she yelled, but when she looked up, she saw that Artemis was already stumbling down the alley, the opposite way she had come.

"No, not that way!" Lily called after her, but they had no choice. When she looked back at the street she had come from, beyond the flailing hairy arm that was Fenrich, she saw another window open up and some of the rebels climbed out into the alley. They spotted her.

A hand closed around her shoulder and she yelped, but it was only the girl.

"Come on!"

Lily didn't need to be told twice. Artemis helped her to her feet and the two of them began to run down the narrow alley. But they only made it five paces when more rebels appeared at the opposite end. They were trapped.

"What do we do, what do we do?!"

"Here!" The girl ran forward and grabbed a drainage pipe. She clenched her hand around it hard, her knuckles turning white. It came to life, bending around her waist and pulling her up. She turned back to Lily. "What are you doing?! I said here!"

Lily shook herself and ran forward. She grabbed a part of the drain just in time and they began to rise slowly. Too slowly.

"Can't you go any faster?!" Lily shouted. The rebels were closing in fast.

"You want to try instead? It's a flimsy drain, not an elevator!" She was straining, panting with the effort.

The first rebel made a running jump for them, reaching up for Lily's legs. She kicked out. Her foot made contact with the man's forehead and bounced back. It hurt, but not as much as it hurt the rebel. The man's head was knocked back and he landed in a heap in the alley.

Soon they were too high for anyone to reach them, almost a third of the way to the roof. The rebels under them scrambled around, running the way they came.

"They're going to chase us up here," panted the girl, watching them. "They're going to find a way up."

"What then?"

"What then?" the girl repeated, agitated. Beads of sweat were starting to form on her forehead. "We fight them is what then. Or avoid them."

"But what about that… thing? The Wolfwitch?" The hairy arm that had been poking out the window had retreated too. In a minute, Fenrich could be anywhere, including the roof they were going to.

"All I have is his fang," said the girl, fiddling her fingers. A golden ring sat on one of her fingers. "I can scratch him with it. It's not enough though. I wish I still had your gold on me. I'm Artemis, by the way, and who the hell are you?"

"Oh! I'm Lily. You sort of robbed me of my gold this morning."

"Yeah, I recognized you… Didn't think you'd come this far for a stupid bag though."

Lily was about to retort, but they had reached the the top of the building. The drain lifted Artemis up onto the roof and Lily climbed up too. Artemis left the drain twisted like a vine and put her hands on her knees, catching her breath. The lift seemed to have taken a lot out of her, but it looked like she was recovering fast.

Lily looked around the flat roof, the wind blowing her hair. They had to be at least ten stories up. On one side, the rest of the city curved up to the castle and on the other, the lowest Red Ring and the black beaches separated them from the vast sea. The sun was beginning its descent now, and the dazzlingly warm light coming off the water was almost blinding.

"We need to get out of here," said Lily thinking fast. "But they're probably all around the place by now."

"Yeah," Artemis straightened up and looked around, pushing her sweaty bangs out of her eyes. She pointed to a spot several blocks away. "The market's that way. If we can get past them, we could lose them in the crowd."

"But… what about all the people?"

"What about them?"

"Won't they be in danger?"

Artemis looked conflicted. She bit her lip, thinking.

"You're the one who tried to kill that Wolfwitch for attacking innocent people," said Lily, an edge to her voice. "We can't lead him to more. I don't think he'd care who he kills to get to you now."

Artemis groaned. "Yeah, I know. Alright then, where would you go?"

"Me?"

"Yes _you_ , genius. Where would you go to escape them?"

"I… well…" Lily hadn't expected to be asked her opinion on their strategy. Artemis was looking at her like she knew what she was doing, which she certainly didn't. She needed to think.

And so she thought.

After a few seconds, she looked up at Artemis. "What kinds of metals can you use?"

"All sorts," she said quickly. "Anything valuable's better. Why?"

Lily surveyed the sharp landscape of rooftops and spotted what she was looking for within seconds.

"There," she said, pointing. There was a building at the end of a street that had several chimneys poking out of its roof. "That's got to be a blacksmith."

Artemis gazed at the building for a few seconds and then threw Lily a sidelong glance. She had a look like she was reconsidering her judgment of her. At the same moment, they grinned.

"Come on, we'll take the street. They won't be expecting that." Artemis went to the edge of the roof that was closer to the smithy. She bent down and grabbed the gutter where a new drain was situated. She took a few quick breaths, and then pulled with all her might. There was a loud wrenching sound of old, rusty metal bending and bolts snapping from the brick wall.

"They're going to hear that," Lily warned, but Artemis wasn't listening. She looked like… well, she looked like she was pulling out a ten story metal drain with her bare hands.

Suddenly, there came a bang from behind them. Lily whipped around and saw the door to the roof access burst open. Rebels swarmed out onto the roof and spotted them immediately.

"Come here!" Artemis shouted, reaching out.

Lily ran to her. Artemis grabbed her and without any warning, jumped off the roof. Lily yelled as they went sailing through the air, but they didn't fall immediately. She looked down and saw that Artemis had split the drain in half down the middle, creating two poles that bent like legs.

They were on stilts. Bone thin, rusty, ten story high metal stilts.

It was at this moment Lily finally decided to add heights to her list of fears.

"WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIE!"

"SHUT UUUUP!"

They were falling forward. Artemis yelled in pain and one of the metal legs bent, flying ahead of them. It landed in the cobbled street and buried itself in the stone with a crunch that they could hear even at this height.

"You said we were going to be taking the street!" Lily yelled in protest.

"This IS taking the street!"

They teetered, but maintained momentum. Artemis was breathing heavily and gripping Lily hard. She began the next step.

Lily looked down. Aside from the stomach churning view of the ground being so very far away, she saw more rebels running out into the street. They began attacking the legs, shoving them, trying to knock them over. Ten stories up, the pair began to sway dangerously.

Lily was holding on for dear life, gripping onto Artemis like a life raft. She closed her eyes and simply tried her best not to panic every time they started leaning the wrong way. Her life was in Artemis's hands.

They took another shaky step. Suddenly, they fell a few feet and Lily's heart jolted painfully. Another step. Teeter. Then another. She refused to open her eyes, but sooner than she had expected Artemis was shouting, "We're here!"

She looked around. They were significantly lower to the ground, Artemis having bent the metal in on itself to keep it steady. The smithy was in front of them and they were standing about level with a large window on its third floor.

They began falling forward again, and this time Artemis didn't raise the legs to take another step. They were going through.

"Get ready!"

Lily didn't know how. She simply held on and hoped the approaching grimy old glass wasn't the last thing she'd ever see.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Smithy

* * *

They hit the window and it shattered. Lily and Artemis landed and rolled on a hard metal surface, fragments of glass flying everywhere.

The wind had been knocked out of her again. The world was spinning. For the second time that day, Lily got shakily to her feet after making a disastrous landing. She leaned on a nearby railing and made a quick assessment of her body. Nothing seared with pain except a few stinging cuts on her arms. She wasn't drenched in anything warm and wet. She was alright.

Artemis, however, wasn't moving. Lily bent over her, fear rising in her throat, but she seemed unhurt.

"I'm okay," she panted, her voice barely a whisper. "I'm okay…"

She looked exhausted, completely spent. Once she had made sure she wasn't bleeding or otherwise injured in any way, Lily stood up and looked around.

It was indeed a blacksmith. They were standing on a metal catwalk overlooking a vast room full of furnaces, tables, mills and dusty old machinery. There were columns spaced around that held up the roof. Each column had pulleys attached at the base that lifted large crates and heavy equipment up to the catwalks running above the cluttered room.

It was quiet and empty. Not a single anvil sang with the clash of steel nor a single furnace blazed with fire and life. Looking around, Lily realized that this might not have been the best idea after all. The smiths that worked here had no doubt gutted the place of all valuable metal before they left it bare and silent.

But the room wasn't silent for long. Something massive slammed into the door two floors below them with a splintery boom.

"We have to move!" Lily shouted.

Artemis didn't reply.

Lily turned back to her and knelt at her side. "… Artemis? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, m'fine…"

But she wasn't fine. She looked still as death. She wasn't even panting. Shouldn't she have been panting?

"Artemis?" Lily shook her shoulder.

The door burst off its hinges with a crash. Fenrich barreled into the building, the rebels at his heels. His fur was standing on end and his flank was heaving. He looked up and found Lily. The eye Artemis had stabbed was still bleeding, red and black and ruined, but the other shone with a wild malice the likes of which Lily had never seen.

"Artemis!" Lily yelled. "He's here! He's coming right now, you have to do something!"

Artemis stirred, groaned, her eyes shut. She put a shaky hand into her pocket and took out a small, bright green bottle. It seemed to glow slightly, like a jar of fireflies. She pulled at the cork with clumsy fingers, but it was stuck.

"Here." Lily took the bottle and uncorked it. Immediately her nostrils were assaulted by a pungent, rancid aroma. She covered her nose as her eyes began to water. "What is this stuff?!"

"A boost," Artemis breathed. "Give it…"

Not knowing what was going to happen, Lily took the bottle and put it to Artemis's lips. She downed its contents in one gulp.

At once, the air around her body began to take on a glassy, blistered sheen, the same way heat would dance over a dry street in summer. Artemis took in a huge, rattling breath and her chest rose off the catwalk. Her eyes were wide and an excited grin spread across her face.

Lily scrambled backwards away from her.

A shudder ran up and down Artemis's body and she slapped a hand down on the catwalk. Her fist clenched around the metal and it folded like a bedsheet under her fingers. The whole catwalk shook and twisted around her, wrapping around her body like armor as she fell to the ground. Lily began to slide as the catwalk began to fall too, wrecked and still twisting around Artemis, who landed on the ground amidst the rebels with a loud, heavy crash.

Lily fell amidst the ruins of the catwalk. She landed hard on the floor and rolled to a stop, her hands covering her head. But all the raining metal and bricks seemed to miss her. She looked up through the falling dust.

Artemis was dancing, wielding strips of metal like whips, wrapping rebel after rebel in a tight coil. One by one they fell to her, struggling, unable to move.

But not all of them. A rebel dodged her metal whips, moving with the speed and reflexes of a cat. The woman slid across the floor under a metal arm and drove a knife into an exposed bit of Artemis's leg, but the steel crumpled on impact like paper. Artemis wound back and kicked the woman, sending her flying. She hit the opposite wall and before she could fall, a metal bar shot out and buried itself in the bricks on either side of her, pinning the unconscious woman like a stapled insect.

One of the downed rebels pulled a hand free from his twisted metal cage and pointed at Artemis awkwardly. A small line of fire shot from his finger, shooting like a dart at her head, but she seemed to sense it. She twisted out of the way and the fire hit the ceiling, catching the rotting beams that held up the roof. They burst into flames and the fire began to spread slowly across the rafters. The man received a face full of metal for his efforts and was left squirming on the ground, his yelling muffled.

A mass of black fur bounded onto a huge furnace and dived at Artemis. Fenrich made a great swipe at her body, his claws extended, but he only ended up slashing the armor guarding her back with a terrible scraping noise. He slid across the floor, unbalanced. Artemis turned and swung a whip around a large mill. There was an earsplitting wrenching noise as the machine was yanked from the floor. Artemis yelled and pulled at the whip, swinging it around the room. It came around and collided with Fenrich, sending the great wolf flying across the room. He crashed into tables and machines as he went, landing out of sight.

Suddenly, a freezing cold arm wrapped around Lily's throat, pulling her up and blocking off her air. She had been too preoccupied with the fight raging in front of her to notice anyone else. She kicked and scraped her fingernails on the arm, trying to breath. The rebel who had her wasn't large, and to her surprise, she felt herself breaking free. She got her arm up and elbowed the rebel in the face, and the arm released her.

She stumbled forward, gasping for breath, and turned to see her attacker. The rebel was rubbing his jaw. He didn't look more than a few years older than Lily. He shook himself and rushed forward, arm outstretched, and Lily saw frost blossoming and spreading around his dark hand.

Lily tried to dodge, but the rebel grabbed a fistful of her shirt. It felt like her belly had been splashed with ice cold water. The rebel pulled and the lower part of her tunic didn't rip, it shattered. It had been frozen solid.

Lily stumbled back until she bumped up against a table. The rebel put his hands together and Lily saw the frost between his fingers coalesce, merging together and growing. He pulled from his hands a short, ugly dagger of ice.

They stood looking at each other. The crash and the roar of the growing fire from above and the fight still raging between Artemis and the rest of the rebels didn't even faze Lily. She clenched her hands into fists, her eyes on the Icewitch and his dagger.

A metal encased rebel flew between the two of them and Lily took the momentary distraction to dart forward. The Icewitch was taken by surprise, and he dodged out of the way as Lily made a wild swing at him. She was thrown off balance. She felt rather than saw the knife coming for her, and ducked under his arm as he tried to stab her. She grabbed him around the middle and pushed, but wasn't quick enough to pull away. The point of the dagger ran across her back, biting into her skin, stinging worse than cat claws. She twisted away from it and pushed the Icewitch away awkwardly. She straightened up painfully. The cut didn't feel deep, but it still burned.

A wooden beam fell from the ceiling and landed with a fiery crash next to them. It smashed a table in two, throwing sparks and burning fragments of wood around the area they were in. Lily shielded her face from it and looked at the Icewitch. He was stumbling back and Lily saw something strange flash in his eyes. In that fraction of a second, she realized it wasn't bloodlust or anger.

It was fear. He was scared of the fire.

And then a metal plate wrapped around his frightened face and Lily heard him scream, muffled like he was wearing a helmet on backwards. He scrabbled at it, stumbling around, frost growing on the metal like a sparkling white moss.

Lily turned and saw Artemis. She had her back to one of the columns that held up the roof and was looking at Lily with her arm outstretched. She had sent the metal at the Icewitch, and now turned back to her own fight. She was still wearing her makeshift armor and was down to one last metal arm.

Fenrich was recovering a little ways away. The only rebel left standing in the room was a boy, no older than eight. The child was terrified, cowering behind a large machine, staring at Artemis like she was something out his nightmares. His curly hair was standing up on end.

"Get her!" Fenrich barked at him. He was pressing a paw to his eye, trying to stem the bleeding. "Do it! NOW!"

The boy glanced at the great beast and seemed to decide which of the two Witches he was more scared of. He turned to Artemis and slowly stepped out from his hiding place. He closed his eyes and turned his head as he walked towards her, his body tensed and his face grimaced.

Artemis hesitated. She extended her metal arm to the boy, wrapping it gently around his waist.

The moment the metal touched the boy, his hair crackled and sparked. Arcs of electricity flashed up the metal arm and Artemis yelled. Her body spasmed and thrashed uncontrollably. The metal arm protruding from her quivered to a stop. After a second, it and some of the metal covering her body fell to the floor with a loud clatter where they lay, lifeless.

It seemed to take Artemis an age to fall. She swayed where she stood, her short, crackling hair puffed out and her clothing singed. Her body tipped to the side, and with a mundane, heavy, clattering thump, she landed in a heap amongst her metal.

"Artemis!" Lily ran forward, vaulting over a table and sending tools and boxes crashing to the floor. She ran to her and knelt by her body.

Artemis wasn't breathing.

She was scared to check. She didn't want to know, but she had to make sure. Very hesitantly, she placed a hand on Artemis's exposed neck, feeling for a pulse, a sign of life, a promise that she would be okay.

She waited. And waited. And waited.

But nothing came.

Panic flooded her, a different kind of panic than she had felt all day. Goosebumps washed up and down her body, making her shiver. She quickly put her ear to Artemis's chest, praying she was mistaken. But it was the same. She couldn't hear anything.

She looked up. The fire had spread around the room, eating at the old, rotting wood and licking up the walls. Smoke was beginning to fill the air, making her eyes water.

And standing ten feet away, prowling closer with a slight limp, was Fenrich. He looked injured, his fur on one side wet and matted with blood. He was staring at the two of them with a furious hunger in his remaining eye.

"She's already dead!" Lily yelled at him. She looked around, wracking her brains, trying to find a way out. "Your men!" she shouted over the roar of the fire, playing for time. "Your followers! If we don't get them out of here soon, they'll die! Leave her alone, she's already—!"

"No." Fenrich growled. "She's mine."

"But your men! They—"

"SHUT UP!" he spat. His claws lengthened, black against the inferno behind him, long and ready to rip and tear.

A sudden thought came to Lily out of nowhere and she got to her feet. She lowered a hand to her side and found it. The ornate silver knife. She pulled it from its sheath and pointed it directly at the wolf.

Fenrich's lips pulled back in a snarl and his face contorted with rage. He barked, the primal sound hitting Lily like a punch to the face. She could see the holes where his fang and eye used to be. He looked insane, completely mad. Any trace of the man was now gone, lost to the beast.

Fenrich limped forward. Lily waited, her hand trembling. If this didn't work…

The wolf reached the spot and Lily tossed the knife into her other hand, twisted, and in one swift movement, cut the rope that was tied to the column next to them. It shot upwards and Fenrich looked up just in time to see an immense pile of crates and barrels fall on his face.

There was a colossal, clamoring crash as the wood and metal rained down from the lift attached to the pulley. The sound rang in her ears, almost painfully loud. Soon, the last fragment of wood clattered to a rest.

Before her lay hundreds of pounds of equipment and wood and iron and who knew what else. All that was left of Fenrich was a clawed paw, poking out from under it. It twitched once, twice. And then no more. Slowly, the black hair slid back under the skin. The claws changed back to nails. The pile shifted slightly as the monster it covered shrank back into a man.

Lily stood motionless for an instant, staring at it. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in.

Then she turned from the pile and knelt next to Artemis, dropping the knife at her side. She was still lying in the same place, completely motionless.

"Okay, okay," Lily rolled her onto her back. "Okay, you can do this, come on."

She put her hands on Artemis's chest and pushed down, counting. When she had finished, she bent forward and pried away the metal guarding her face. She pressed her mouth to hers, blowing air into her lungs. She repeated. And repeated.

But nothing changed.

The fire was creeping closer. Boards were falling from the ceiling and it was only a matter of minutes before the whole roof came down. A deep, ominous groaning was coming from the ceiling. Smoke was filling the air, making it harder to breath. The heat was making her sweat.

Lily looked around and saw the rebels, still trapped, struggling against their bonds, yelling for help. Some of them had gotten to their feet, their arms still wrapped in metal, and were making their way out of the building. But others were unconscious or otherwise bound too tightly. The boy who had electrocuted Artemis had gotten back under the machine he had been hiding behind. He was crying, calling for his mother.

"Help me!" Lily shouted to him. The boy looked up through his tears. "Help me bring her back! Her heart's stopped!"

The boy curled into a ball. Lily got up and ran over to him. The boy shrunk back, trying his best to get under the machine. Lily slowed to a stop and held up her hands.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," she said in a rush, getting to her knees and extending a hand to the boy. "It's okay, I just need your help. She'll die if we don't do something."

The boy glanced at the pile of wood and metal. At the hand sticking out of it.

Lily glanced at it too, and then back to the boy. "You don't have to worry about him anymore."

The boy looked back at Lily. He gulped. "Do you promise?" he said in a quavery voice.

"I promise." For good measure, Lily made a small x on her chest, right over her heart.

The boy looked over to Artemis's body, then back to Lily again. He nodded tremulously.

Lily let out a breath. "Thank you. Come on, quickly!"

The boy took Lily's hand and crawled out from under the machine. Lily ran to Artemis and the boy followed her, giving the pile a wide berth.

"I need you to shock her, if you can, right over—

"I know what to d-do."

"You do? Are you sure?"

"I've done this before," sniffed the boy, getting to his knees. He looked confident, but still frightened. "M-move away from her…"

Lily did as she was told, watching as the boy put his hands on Artemis's chest. His hair crackled and Artemis twitched. Her body jerked like she was hiccoughing, but nothing else happened. The boy tried again. And again. And again.

"Keep trying," Lily said, her own heart racing. "Please."

The boy looked up, but couldn't meet her eyes. Tears were running down his cheek again and he had begun to shake. "I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean t-to… I swear I d-didn't mean it… please…"

"Just keep trying."

The boy took a deep, shuddering breath, and tried again. But his hands hadn't even returned to her skin before she herself took a breath of her own. Her chest rose and her eyes flew open.

"Yes!" Lily punched the air. "You did it!" The boy smiled up at her proudly.

But their celebration was cut short as a thick wooden beam fell and landed with a smash just ten feet away. The building was starting to collapse, and the rebels were still trapped.

"Artemis?" Lily crouched down next to her. "Can you hear me? We need your—"

"She's still out," said the boy. "H-how are you going to free the others?"

Lily looked around, thinking hard.

"You _are_ going to free them… right?" the boy asked hesitantly.

"You need to get out of here, first of all," Lily said quickly. "It's not safe. Find help. Bring the guard. Run as fast you can, hurry!"

The boy nodded, got to his feet and charged off without another word. Lily looked down at Artemis. She was still unconscious. She picked up the knife and put it back in her sheath. She pulled Artemis up and over her shoulder with a grunt. Artemis's body was thin, but her armor made her heavier than a sack of potatoes.

She began to carry her towards the exit. The downed rebels that were still conscious shouted at her, either calling abuse or calling for help.

"Help is coming!" she shouted back to all of them. "We're getting the guards." But this only seemed to make them panic more. Lily ignored them and carried Artemis out of the building as fast as she could.

Carrying her from the burning smithy was harder than she had expected. She wasn't unfit by any means, but at the same time, it wasn't as if she had spent her life carrying heavy objects.

She looked around the dark street, breathing in the fresh, cool air with relief. Her head cleared with every breath. Night was falling and the fire still burned in her retinas, making it hard to see any of the Orange. She blinked several times, and the street presented more of itself with each passing second. It was deserted for the time being.

Lily thought hard for a moment. If they stayed here, people would find her and Artemis. They'd start asking questions. How did they find themselves in the smithy in the first place, surrounded by angry rebels? How did all of them end up wrapped in metal?

What she needed to do was find Venus. She was the only healer who could help them and not expose Artemis as a Witch. They needed to keep out of sight until they somehow found her.

Lily readjusted Artemis to a more comfortable position on her shoulder, making sure she could keep her balance, and set off down the street. As she went, some of the metal Artemis still had wrapped around her body fell off with a clatter on the cobblestones.

They were nearing the building they had jumped from. A small pile of bricks littered the ground by the wall and Lily could make out a line of holes running up the side of the building. She stopped in the street and strained her ears. Above the roar of the fire behind her, she could just hear the unmistakable sounds of a group of people approaching.

Lily looked around hastily and found a small, deserted vendor at the corner of the street. She carried Artemis over to it, breathing hard, and went around a dusty, rotting counter. She dropped her behind it and crouched under the wood just as a crowd rounded the corner onto the street. Lily peered around the edge.

A few dozen men and women were running towards the fire, some of them with buckets and hoses, others still in their nightclothes, all of them shouting and ready to help. The guards had arrived too. Leading the small party was the boy, and running at his side was a tall woman who seemed to sparkle in the dark.

The woman was bedecked in the colors of the royal guard. At her hip rested an ornate sword. Her bright hair flowed out behind her and, as she reached the entrance, she knelt down and spoke to the boy, who nodded, pointing into the building.

Lady Oscar stood up. She said something to her fellow guards and they all pulled their swords out. The metal sang as the blades left their respective sheaths and they all entered the smithy.

"Whazzit?" Artemis mumbled unexpectedly.

Lily turned to look at her. She looked just as knocked out as when they had fallen through the window. But she was breathing again, and that was all that mattered.

"Hey," Lily said, crawling over to her. "You're safe, I've got you. How are you feeling?"

Artemis took in a slow breath, her eyes closed. She then let out a rather ungraceful snore.

"Good," Lily whispered. She smiled. "You bloody idiot."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Bunker

* * *

As it turned out, Lily didn't have to carry Artemis all the way. As it turned out, dunking a person's head in a barrel of freezing water was almost as rejuvenating as taking a magick potion. Artemis still looked like she was battling an awful hangover, but once she was awake again, she could tell Lily where to go.

"A few blocks from here… I think?" she said uncertainly, running a hand through her still wet hair and shrugging off the remaining plates of metal still attached to her. "Yeah, just a couple of blocks. I know where I am now."

"Are you sure you're okay? You look terrible."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't think anyone's ever said that and actually been fine."

Artemis shot her a look, but shrugged. "You're probably right. Hey, how's your hip?"

"It's…"

Artemis raised her eyebrows. Lily looked away to grin.

They walked through the darkening Orange. A few people were still milling around, delivering packages into brightly lit stores or weaving merrily down the street in loud groups. Moths and bugs threw themselves at windows and lamps. Lily's feet were starting to ache badly. The stars had still yet to come out when Artemis directed her down a side street. It was a dead end, lined with shabby looking apartments.

"Here we are," said Artemis.

Lily came to a stop next to her. The building at the end of the street was squeezed in, almost like the builders had wanted to see just how cramped they could make it. The windows were either smashed or boarded up, and the roof was showing more rafter than shingle.

"You… live here?" Lily asked, hesitantly, trying and failing to sound envious.

"Yep." Artemis stepped up to the door and lifted her hand, Fenrich's golden fang still wrapped around her finger as a ring. "I call it the Bunker."

"Cool. Uhm… why?"

"Because nobody can get in but me," she said proudly. She held up the ring and it melted, somewhat slower than before, into a key. She put it in the door and turned. A series of heavy metallic clunks sounded from within, and it opened with a satisfying click. "I designed it specifically so that I'm the only person who can get past—"

"ELEANOR MARIGOLD ARVANITIS!" shouted a familiar voice from inside the house.

Artemis crumpled in on herself and shut the door with a click. Her face burned faster and hotter than the smithy they had left.

"Wrong house," she said.

Before she could retreat however, the door flew open. On the threshold stood Venus. She looked furious. "In, Eleanor."

Artemis spluttered. "That's not—! How did you even—"

" _Now._ "

There was something about Venus that made standing up to her considerably harder than standing up to a bloodthirsty, nine-foot-tall Wolfwitch. Maybe it had something to do with the way her spectacles flashed dangerously in the street light or the way her mouth tightened to a severe line, but Lily found herself backing away slightly. She regretted it the moment she moved.

Venus turned to her.

"You too, child." She stood back and held the door open.

Lily looked at Artemis, who glanced back at her. Her face was still red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment, but she walked inside all the same. Lily followed, not looking at Venus. She shut the door behind them with a sharp snap.

Despite the approaching scolding that would no doubt involve her, Lily couldn't help but gaze around the room, temporarily too stunned for words. She had expected the inside to look like a run down shack, like it hadn't been lived in for years, but it didn't. On the contrary, the inside of Artemis's house looked more ostentatious and expensive than her own house back in the Blue.

Predictably, the majority of the interior was made of metal. But it wasn't industrial or ugly, it was… magickal.

They were standing at the top of a double staircase that curved on either side down to a small lobby. The room was bright and circular and larger than she had expected. From the ceiling of the round room spilled a chandelier of dozens of lightbulbs, all connected by thin strands of bright metal that swooped up to a domed roof. The light danced and sparkled around the room, not obnoxiously, but gently, only just dazzling enough. The curved walls were artistically swirled and polished. The interweaving locks of metal looked strangely organic, in a metallic beautiful way.

Lily's eyes widened and her mouth fell open as she looked around. She had studied architecture long enough to know that this room alone would have costed tens of thousands of roses to smith and polish and forge. Probably more.

It was only when Venus and Artemis were halfway down one staircase that Lily came to her senses. She followed them, running her fingers along the twisting curves of the walls. It felt like solid hair. The bannisters were also twisted, but they resembled something more like vines. She followed Venus and Artemis down to the lobby, staring up at the chandelier of light bulbs.

They lead her to a door that went down to a sitting room, this one smaller and slightly darker than the last. A sofa was pushed up against the wall and a coffee table rose out of the metal floor in front of it, covered in dirty dishes and cups that looked out of place in the beautiful room. A fireplace was inlaid in the opposite wall, its mantle twisted like a gnarly tree. Photos lined the walls, showing various sculptures and pictures of Artemis, arm in arm with Venus.

And speaking of Venus, "Sit." She gestured to the sofa and sat herself on the edge of the coffee table.

Artemis did as she was told. Lily followed. Even though she had just met Venus that morning, she couldn't help but feel like she was sitting down to be chastised by her own mother.

Venus looked at them for a moment before speaking to Artemis. "This morning, you dropped this girl's body off on my door. Now, I don't know what plans you had today that were so urgent you couldn't show the common decency to stay and see if she recovered, or why you even robbed her in the first place, but I'll have you know that I nearly lost her twice. Do you know what that would have made you?"

Artemis wasn't looking at her. She seemed entirely fixated on the leg of the coffee table.

"That would have made you a murderer." Venus was staring keenly at her. "But, as luck would have it, I managed to bring her back. And do you know what happened then?"

A beat. Artemis glanced at Lily's legs and then shook her head.

"Why don't you tell her then, child," said Venus, not taking her eyes off her niece.

Lily glanced up at her, and swallowed. "I… uh. Your… mother came in. She said a lot of stuff about you, but Venus stuck up for me… and took me to the Orange."

"Because she asked to go," Venus picked up. "She asked to be taken to you. Not because she was mad, though I don't doubt she must have been, but because you had stolen her bag, and she wanted it back so much she came all this way to find it herself. Given how important it was to her, and the fact that you no longer seem to have it, I can only assume you have ruined her day, and very likely a substantial part of her life."

Still no reply from Artemis.

"Now," Venus turned her gaze over to Lily, who suddenly found it just as hard to look at her. "I meant to bring you here, where I assumed we would find her. You did ask to be taken to Eleanor, after all. But then I turn around and I find you've left. Gone, without a trace, poof." She made a poof gesture. "You could have gotten lost, or you could have been kidnapped. And I had no way of finding you or knowing what had become of you."

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but Venus raised a finger and Lily's explanation died in her throat.

"I don't know what you know of Witches, or the risks I take to help people, or what vows I took when I trained to become a healer, but when I am given a patient, I intend to see that patient returned to their home safely and in perfect health, no matter the magick required. Running off like that not only put yourself at risk, but you completely undermined everything that I did for you today. I went looking for you for hours, I came back here several times this evening to check if, by some miracle, you'd returned alive with her, and then I went back to the streets to look for you again. All day, running around the entire Ring. I saved your life, and you repay me by walking away without even trying—"

"She saved _my_ life."

Venus and Lily turned to look at Artemis. She was glaring straight at Venus, a hard look on her face.

Venus's eyes narrowed. "And how exactly did your life come to need saving? In fact—" she crossed her legs "—why don't you tell me exactly what you did today? I imagine it has something to do with why you both look like you've been beaten to a pulp."

Artemis opened her mouth, closed it, rubbed her face slowly and then looked at Lily. "…can you leave? Please?"

Normally, Lily would have complied without question just to escape, but something held her back.

"Why?" she asked.

"It's… kind of… private, for me and her, and—"

"No, I'm not leaving. We were in this together." Lily closed her mouth in surprise. She couldn't remember the last time she had ever asserted herself like that in a conversation. Had she ever? She didn't think so…

Artemis sighed through her nose, looking at her knees. She raised her hand. The golden ring still sat on one of her fingers.

Venus's expression switched from quizzical to outright disbelief instantly.

"What?!" she blurted, making them jump. "Why?! You two just met today, how the hell could you possibly be—"

"What? NO! Venus!" Artemis was turning red again. "It's not like that, you old bat! I'm trying to… gods what is _wrong_ with you?! We're not—"

Lily went red too as the realization of what they were talking about hit her. She and Artemis looked at each other, and then just as quickly looked away.

"I just changed it to a ring for safe keeping, _gods,_ " Artemis huffed, calming down somewhat. "I just wanted… I wanted to show you this."

She pulled the ring from her finger and it shifted slowly back into a fang. She took a deep breath and then held it out to her aunt.

Venus was looking just as confused as she had a moment ago, if not more. She leaned forward and took the fang from Artemis, who gave it up without qualm. Venus turned it over, examining it from every angle. Her brow furrowed. She looked at Artemis, and Artemis held her gaze.

"This is his, isn't it?" Venus inquired slowly. "The wolf's?"

Artemis nodded. "Yeah. I… I pulled it from his mouth and… I sort of stabbed him in the eye with it."

It took them about ten minutes to get through the whole story. Artemis and Lily ended up interrupting each other to add in their own experiences. Throughout the entire thing, Venus didn't say a word. She only reverted back to her stern face. When they had finished, she narrowed her eyes at Artemis.

"And why did she—" she nodded to Lily "—have to leave for you to tell me all this?"

Lily was wondering the same thing. Artemis was looking down at the foot of the coffee table again. She took another deep breath, then looked up at Venus and said, without a shred of further hesitation, "I wanted to do it for you."

Venus raised her eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"I mean, I wanted to stop him and I wanted to put him in his place before I did it, so I took his fang, cause that was all he— either way, I wanted to do it for you and give you his fang as a gift, you know, f-for…" she faltered and continued in a quieter voice, "… for Fête des Mères."

Silence filled the room. Artemis looked down again. Lily could only stare between her and Venus, whose face had gone very slightly pink. She looked at her niece for a few seconds before holding the golden fang up again. Artemis went on in a rush.

"You were always talking about how many people he killed, and how many people you got because of him. And I just wanted… I wanted to stop him— for them too! But also… cause I wanted to do it for you. You're more of a… to me at least you've always been…"

She subsided into embarrassed silence again. Lily understood why she had asked her to leave now, and she almost wished she had. If she was in Artemis's position, she would have appreciated the privacy to talk to…

"Wait a second," she said, suddenly remembered something. "I… the rubies, the rubies in the crown! I bought those for _my_ mother! For Fête des Mères!"

Artemis looked up at her, her brow furrowed. "You did?"

"What? Of course I did! What do you think I got it for?!"

"Oh, I'm… I'm sorry, I just thought you…"

"I what? Bought it for myself to wear?"

"Well… yeah, it would have gone nice with your hair and—"

"That cost thirty roses! I was going to give the necklace to her as a gift and you… We haven't even talked about how you robbed me! I lost that and the twenty you used for the crown and—"

Lily stopped dead. In all this time, in all the excitement of the chase and the rebels and Fenrich and the fight and the fire, she had somehow not spared a single thought for it.

"My book! You stole my book from me! That was my only copy of it I'd been working on it for so long!"

"Wait, you _wrote_ that book? Yourself? Like you actually—"

"Yes, I wrote it! And it took me over a year and—"

Venus sniffed.

The two of them whipped around to look at her. Her eyes were bright as she looked down at the fang, which glinted slightly in the dim light. She suddenly stood up and bent forward, pulling Artemis up out of her seat and into her arms.

Artemis seemed taken aback. She stood in her aunt's tight embrace for a few seconds and then wrapped her arms around her too. Venus closed her eyes.

"I'm so proud of you."

Lily couldn't see Artemis's reaction. She didn't know whether or not she should still leave, but she didn't look away from the pair. Venus continued in a hushed voice.

"I don't say it often enough, but I mean it. And… even though I _know_ we're being watched by a complete stranger right now—" Lily looked away, suddenly very interested in the pictures along the wall, "—I want you to know that you've always been a second daughter to me."

Lily was finding it very hard to find anything interesting in the photos.

They hugged for another few seconds before Venus got a hold of herself. She pulled away and, with one last look at it, pocketed the golden fang. She patted the pocket thoughtfully before turning back to Lily.

"Well then, child. Are you ready?"

"Ready…?"

"I'm taking you back to the Blue. It's time we left. Your… parents are likely worried sick."

"Oh," said Lily. She had a short moment of panic at the thought of what she was going to say to them when she returned, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. "But… I haven't got my bag. We left it… well actually _you_ —" she looked at Artemis "—left it in the warehouse, with all my gold and the rubies. And my book."

Artemis seemed to come back to herself. She blinked and then grinned mischievously.

"You're not… entirely right about that."

Lily furrowed her brow slightly, but just as quickly raised them in surprise. "You—"

"Yeah," Artemis was smiling and extending her hand. "Come on."

Lily took her hand and Artemis pulled her to her feet and started over to the staircase. Lily hurried behind her, excited.

"Make it quick!" Venus called after them.

Artemis and Lily ran up the stairs.

"You actually have it?" Lily asked. "My book?"

"Maaaaybe." Artemis placed a hand on the wall when they reached the top of the stairs. "I came back here before I left for the warehouse to—"

She glared at her hand. The metal remained very solid.

"… Are you alright?" Lily asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, just—" Artemis stopped and took a deep breath and the metal slowly began to warp. "It's just so _heavy_."

"Can Witches run out of magick?"

"No, I'm just a little tired. It's not an issue. Look." Flat bars were pushing out of the walls, running up the wall ahead of them. She was making a new staircase. When they had all stopped moving, she removed her hand and massaged it. "I need to ask her for more elixir… come on!"

And they were off again. Lily followed Artemis as she climbed the makeshift staircase. She looked down as they went and admired the chandelier. It was dazzling from every angle. As she watched, Venus came up from the sitting room and made her way up one of the main staircases to the exit.

"We should also get you something new to wear," said Artemis.

"Something new…?" Lily looked down and noticed the whole lower part of her tunic was torn out. She had almost forgotten about how it had shattered under the Icewitch's touch. That also reminded her of the cut on her back. "Oh."

"So anyway, about before," Artemis opened a segment of the domed ceiling and led the way up into another room. "I came back here before leaving for the warehouse, and I dropped it off."

Lily stepped up into Artemis's room. It was shaped like a crescent moon, wrapped around the dome of the main room they had just left. The wall that hugged the dome was dotted and split with shelves upon shelves, stuffed with sculptures and devices, large and small chunks of metal. A bed was lying in the far corner of the crescent, with pictures covering the walls and low ceiling above it. More light bulbs hung from the ceiling like stalactites. The larger wall was brushed and twisted with the same metallic hair-like design as the lobby below them. It curved up and became the ceiling, and in the middle, a wide, floor-to-ceiling window opened onto the rest of the Lower Rings. The edge of Thronum Mare sparkled with lights and windows. Beyond the Red, the dark sea stretched out for miles, dull and blurred, but the sky above it…

The sky burned bright and brilliant. It drew Lily's gaze, pulling her up and away, somehow more transfixing than ever before, like it knew she was glad to be alive to see it. Stars winked and glowed everywhere, a cascade of worlds beyond count spilled across the heavens for them to see. The galaxy was resplendent and clear, a wash of light stretching up and out of sight in a cloudy stream.

"Here," said Artemis, going to a table that sat in the middle, curved like the room. It looked more like a workbench, with tiny delicate devices littered on its surface. A few large pieces of scrap metal and coins were left on its cluttered surface, along with a couple old plates dusted with crumbs. There were no tools in sight. "Sorry for the mess, by the way. I don't usually get visitors."

Artemis walked over to the table and picked up a familiar leather-bound book. Lily let out a breath as she saw it. After all this time, she was just handing it over. It felt almost too easy.

Artemis held it out and Lily took it delicately like it was made of glass, immediately checking to see if it was alright. It had all of its pages, the leather still looked brand-new. It was the same. It was her book.

"I got some clothes over here." Artemis walked over to the bed in the far corner, and Lily followed somewhat hesitantly, looking around. As she reached the bed, she noticed the largest picture Artemis owned was a poster of Lady Oscar tacked to ceiling over the bed, surrounded by other smaller paintings of women.

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Lily held her book over her belly where her tunic was torn and turned her attention to Artemis. She was pulling open a door that was melted into the wall with some difficulty, like the hinges were rusted together.

"I got it," she said, noticing Lily watching her. She pulled at the door and it opened into a small, messy closet. Artemis reached in and pulled out a new tunic. "This should fit you, it's a little long on me."

Lily took the tunic and Artemis walked over to the table. She sat on the edge and looked out the window.

Lily watched her for a second until, quite suddenly, she realized Artemis intended for her to change now, here. The thought made her cheeks flood with color.

She set her book down on Artemis's bed and, blushing slightly, removed her ruined tunic. She had never undressed in the presence of a stranger before, least of all in a stranger's bedroom.

To fill the silence, she said, "So… you're name's Eleanor?"

"Oh shut up," Artemis huffed from the table. She looked back at Lily, but just as quickly looked away, her cheeks pink. "S-she knows that's not my name anymore…"

Lily slipped the new tunic down over herself and undid the hairband that held her ponytail together. Her hair fell free for the first time that afternoon. She picked up her book and walked over to the table, carrying her old tunic.

"I'm sorry, by the way," Artemis said to her knotted fingers when Lily reached the table. Lily looked at her back, dropping the torn tunic on the table next to a pile of old plates and a goblet. "For… today. Stealing your bag, breaking your nose, and… everything else."

Lily didn't know what to say. She walked around the table so she could see her better.

"You could have died, twice," Artemis went on. "Actually, probably more times than that. I'm sorry for roping you into all this. I'm sorry for ruining your day, and—"

"Are you _joking_?!"

Artemis looked up at her. Lily was staring at her. What she had been wanting to say all evening suddenly burst forth.

"That was the best day of my life! I can't think when I've ever been in danger like that, or ran as much, or— I've never even met a Witch before, and then I met you! And then Venus and all the rebels, and I've never been to the Lower Rings, and I've never gotten into a fight before, or seen someone die or… killed someone before…" she paused a beat, "I _killed_ someone today! I killed a mass murderer and… I think I ended the resistance…"

Her mind was racing with the events of the day, faster than she could speak. Her hands were coming very close to shaking, and it felt good. It felt fantastic. She had done more and had more things happen to her today than in the last decade.

"Is this normal life for you?" she asked, her voice coming almost as close to shaking as her hands.

"Well," Artemis was still looking surprised and relieved at her reaction. "Not really… I mean I don't do stuff like this every day—"

"I want to do this every day." Lily was looking around the room. She was standing in a Witch's room. A room that had been sculpted into existence with magick. "I wish I was a Witch."

"Well… maybe you are, and you just don't know it yet."

Lily turned back to her, almost breathless. "Could you teach me? How to use magick?"

"I… could, I guess," Artemis was looking mildly surprised. "But what about you? You live in the Blue, what about your life there?"

But Lily wasn't really listening. She was thinking of all the different things she could do if she was a Witch. Could she choose her own power? Would she be able to use metal like Artemis if she was the one teaching her? She liked the sound of that. She could take all her money and melt it into something actually worth something, all the gold coins and maybe the silverware in the dining room and—

"Oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you, too," Lily went to her leather sheath on her hip and pulled out the short silver knife, handing it to her. "This is yours, so I think—"

"You were holding on to that the whole time?!" Artemis was staring at it, shocked. "And you never told me?"

"I… only just thought about it," Lily said hesitantly, and it was the truth. She hadn't been thinking about it very much when she cut the rope in the smithy. The excitement of the night had so thoroughly eclipsed what she took to be a minor detail. She held it out.

Artemis looked down at it. She reached over and took the knife with as much reverence as Lily had when she had taken back her book.

The moment the metal touched her fingertips, it swam up her hand. It was swifter and more fluid than water as it flew across her tan skin, making spirals and burst of twisting brushstrokes and miniature rivers. It almost looked like it was happy to be reunited with her. Artemis let out a sigh, her eyes fluttering closed and a relieved smile gracing her mouth. For the first time that evening, she looked completely relaxed, comfortable.

"I… take it you like silver then?"

"Yeah. More than anything."

"More than gold?"

"Pfft. Gold. If I had this amount of silver on me, I could have taken all of them on at once."

Lily walked over and sat up on the table next to her, brushing a few scraps of metal out of the way. She sat in silence for a moment, content to simply admire the silver running and sliding across Artemis's arm. After a minute, it settled itself into a rippling, liquid band and she sat back, looking out the window.

"What's your book about?" Artemis asked suddenly.

"Oh! Uhm…" Lily looked down at it. She lifted it and flipped through the pages, playing for time. "It's not… well… very exciting. I don't think you'd like it…"

"Oh? I think that's my decision, isn't it? Come on, what's it about?"

"It's…" Lily resigned himself for the worst, her cheeks growing suddenly hot, "…it's a romance."

Artemis didn't say anything at first. Lily was sure she was restraining herself from laughing, but, "I love romances! They're my favorite kind of story."

Lily looked up at her, her heart pounding. "Really?"

"Yeah! Can I see it?" She had her hand out, a look of genuine interest on her face.

Lily hesitated. She suddenly felt exactly like she had on the way to the publisher's office right before she had been robbed. Overtaken by nerves, terrified of how someone would react when they saw her work. But Artemis was different. At least she knew her to some degree. Lily could trust her with her life... why not with her book?

"Uhhm… okay," she said nervously, handing it over to her. She brushed the leather as it left her fingertips.

Artemis took it and settled herself more comfortably on the table, opening it up to the first page.

Lily looked away from her, wringing her hands and playing with her hair. It was far dirtier and sweatier than it had been that morning. Her mother was going to have a fit over it. That was, after she got over everything else Lily had to tell her about.

She decided to look out the window. It was hard to admire the view, beautiful though it was. Every minor movement and sound from Artemis felt like a criticism, like judgement. However, every time a page was turned, she felt a swift stab of pride, which was only then crushed by her nerves. She knew that she was being paranoid, oversensitive, but she couldn't help it.

How long had it been? She couldn't want to read the whole thing, that would take too long. Perhaps she was going to read just the prologue. Or maybe even the first chapter. But that was the slow part, before the characters even met each other! She wouldn't understand how interesting it was until she got to the fifth chapter when the girl—

Artemis closed the book with a thoughtful, "Hm."

Lily looked over at her, her throat tight. She wanted to ask what she thought of every line, every bit of dialogue. She wanted her to talk about every little detail so she would know if any of it worked, if it wasn't completely worthless. She wanted to ask her about everything.

But all he could manage was a nervous, "… Well?"

Artemis turned and looked her full in the face.

"I can't read."

Lily stared at her. Then she burst out laughing. Artemis grinned and joined in.

They laughed and laughed. It was hard to stop, so they didn't. The enormity of what had happened that evening could wait. The repercussions of what she had done could wait. Her parents' reactions could wait.

All that mattered now was that she was here, with Artemis. She was alive, and she was happier than she had been in years. Everything was different. Nothing was the same. Nothing was familiar.

And Lily was home.

The End

* * *

Thank you for reading!

Credit for Venus's character goes to the other fan who helped me write this. Lady Oscar is owned by Yamino and Ash, the creators of the amazing webcomic Sister Claire, for which this was written. All other characters featured are my own.


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